Pentagon announces plans to move into intelligence-gathering sector

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

The Pentagon, in a major expansion of its intelligence gathering activities, plans to assemble an espionage network rivaling the CIA in size, The Washington Post reported late Dec. 1.

The daily said that, U.S. officials will send hundreds of additional spies overseas. They also plan to overhaul the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which has focused primarily during the past decade on activities related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 intelligence “collectors” around the world, a major step-up for an agency whose presence abroad has not exceeded triple-digits in recent years.

U.S. officials told the daily that the plan also includes deployment of a new generation of clandestine operatives to be trained by the CIA.